Or, if you follow the premise of A&E Network's crime drama "Breakout Kings," premiering Sunday, March 6, a bunch of bad guys. That's what happens when the U.S. marshals put together a task force made up of some of the most elusive criminals they have ever run down in an effort to catch escaped prisoners currently on the run. For every fugitive successfully captured, the convicts get a month knocked off their sentences. But since they are out in the field with the marshals, the temptation to flee is always present.

It's familiar territory for executive producers Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora, who also worked together on "Prison Break."

"I don't know if two people who have never been convicted of a crime have spent more time in prison," Santora jokes, referring to all the research they did on the ins and outs of prison life, as well as coming up with daring new ways people could escape.

The idea for the show has a basis in reality, in that law enforcement officers often draw on the expertise of criminals to catch other criminals, but Olmstead admitted there is a bit of "wish fulfillment" involved. For instance, the marshals on the show don't always have to trouble themselves with such technicalities as getting a warrant.

The task force is the brainchild of Ray Zancanelli (Domenick Lombardozzi), who picked the members because he knows firsthand how tough they were to apprehend. But he didn't get to pick his partner, Charlie DuChamp (Laz Alonso), a former desk jockey who insists on always letting Ray know who's boss. The struggle for control is often just as fierce as the chase for the target.

It's certainly not the first go-round as a cop for Lombardozzi, who is perhaps best known for his work on "The Wire." His intimidating demeanor and thick Bronx accent are ready-made for tough-guy roles, but there is a wrinkle to Ray revealed at the end of the first episode that gives the character an unexpected dimension Lombardozzi found intriguing.

"You go throughout the whole episode where he's barking at people and he's giving orders, yet at the end of the day he's really no different than who they are," Lombardozzi says. "What attracted me to the story was I see the potential of there being so many different ways to go with Ray."

It's not surprising, perhaps, that the convicts are among the more intriguing characters in "Breakout Kings." Jimmi Simpson ("Date Night") is perhaps the, er, breakout star as Lloyd Lowery, a former child prodigy with mommy issues and a gift for psychoanalysis. There are also Malcolm Goodwin ("American Gangster") as Shea Daniels, a former gang member who knows the streets and comes up with the idea of calling the task force the "Breakout Kings," and Serinda Swan ("Smallville") as Erica Reed, a wily beauty who learned how to track people from her bounty hunter father.

"I think the heartbeat of the show is the fact that each one of these characters is running away from something to something," Lombardozzi says. "Each one of these characters is extremely different. Everybody's got their own little quirks, but at the same time we're working at the same goal."

Though it seems poised to be a hit, "Breakout Kings" nearly didn't get out of the gate. It was originally slated to join Fox's lineup, but that network passed on the pilot, a development that shocked the cast and crew. Olmstead and Santora said they had gone their separate ways, thinking the show was over, when they got the call that A&E was interested. Not only that, they wanted it as is.

"You wonder, 'What are they going to want to change?' " Santora says. "Are they going to want the same show that we made? Matt and I went out to dinner with them and listened to the network tell us, 'We don't want to change a thing in your pilot.' That was music to our ears, because we really believed in the show."

Their new project also gives Olmstead and Santora a chance to revisit one of their favorite characters from "Prison Break" when Robert Knepper reprises his role as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell in an upcoming episode.

"You don't need to have ever seen a 'Prison Break' episode to like it, but if you've seen 'Prison Break' and you're a fan of the T-Bag character you've got to see this episode," Santora says. "It's just great to see him back in his element, doing his thing, being his badass self. At the end it really wraps up and puts a nice button on the T-Bag character."